


After the Cage Lifted

by StudentOfEtherium



Category: New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Atheist Character, Canon Rewrite, Gay, Gen, Multiplicity/Plurality, One-Sided Attraction, POV First Person, Spoilers, idk why atheist tenko was something i felt i had to include but it fits, magical plurality is still plurality
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-01
Updated: 2020-06-01
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:48:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,627
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24498202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StudentOfEtherium/pseuds/StudentOfEtherium
Summary: A what-if take on chapter three and how it could have played out differently.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 13





	After the Cage Lifted

**Author's Note:**

> as i said, i haven't actually finished V3, so keep that in mind and also no spoilers plz
> 
> (update: now i have finished it. i think everything in this fic can stand as is)

The ritual was set. I lay under the cage in the position Korekiyo told me about. The others in the room started singing as the ritual began. 

My head started getting cloudy. Paying attention to the song became difficult. I assumed this meant things were going well. I let myself go and I felt the fog on my mind begin to expand and take a vague shape.

Suddenly, I snapped back to focus. There were noises in the room, people yelling and arguing. Through it all, I stayed silent and unmoving.

“Tenko, are you okay?” Shuichi yelled. “Y-yes, why?” I responded. “Korekiyo was trying to disrupt the ritual. We don't know why, but give us a second and we'll get you out of there.”

He left and a few minutes later, returned with others. The statue was removed, along with the white cloth. I heard a gasp. “Tenko, stay still.” I heard Shuichi walk over to my position and pick something up, before leaning down and removing the cage. 

“Okay, Tenko, you can get up now.” I lifted my head a little before bringing myself to an upright position. Everyone around me had horrified looks on their faces.

“What happened?” I asked, before turning around and looking at Shuichi. In his hand, he held a small scythe.

Korekiyo spoke up. “Even if my plan failed, can you tell me if the ritual succeeded?”

I stuttered over my words. “I. I don't think so. I don't know how I would tell.”

Then she spoke. “I think it might have gone fine.”

Hours later, the trial was over. Between Angie's testimony and his failed attempt on my life, the trial didn't take long to resolve. Korekiyo was dead. Despite the speed of the things, it had been an exhausting affair for the both of us, as we quickly found ourselves at the center of it all, not to mention adjusting to sharing this body with her. We quickly figured out how to let her control things on her own, before she gave testimony. I still wasn't used to it. Throughout the trial, we had switched between the two of us constantly. Possibly due to our inexperience, it wasn't easy on us.

Despite the speed with which we were able to deal with things, it had left me thoroughly exhausted. “Sleep would be quite nice, I agree.” Angie said. “But whose room do we use?” I thought about it for a second. “Monokuma already said we're free to use either. I would prefer to stay in my room tonight.” The room I already knew.

Angie nodded our head. “Okay, I can be flexible! However, I do want to stop by my room to pick up some of my clothes before bed!” I agreed and we made the stop there. 

Despite being a member of the student council for a short time, I hadn't been in her room before. It was more mundane than I had expected. A few small statues scattered about, some papers and religious books. But all things considered, not too different from my own room.

“Do you want to bring back any of these items with us?” Angie shook our head. “These are just small trinkets. I had been meaning to make creations truly worthy of God, but then tragedy struck!” She didn't seem particularly torn up about it.

“Oh, but I do want this!” Angie leaned down and picked up one of the books. “And this!” She leaned down again and picked up a pen. “This is very important!”

She grabbed a few changes of her clothes, before turning around and leaving. “I can come back tomorrow, anyway!”

I had a feeling tomorrow would be a very busy day.

We woke up early, as I often do. I got dressed quickly and left on my morning run around campus. It was still before anyone else would wake up. I set to doing laps. The whole time, she was talking.

“I'm not used to waking up so early!” I sighed. “Waking up early for exercise has been an important part of my daily routine and training for years. Being trapped in this killing game won't stop it and neither will you.” She shrugged. “I don't mind!”

After my run, we returned to our room. There were still a few more hours until the nighttime hours would end and the day would begin. We weren't hungry yet, so we mulled around in my room for a few minutes talking through our options. 

“Since we discovered my lab, I've been visiting there after my runs and training further until everyone wakes up.” Angie giggled at that. “You sure like training a lot.” 

“Oh course! Training is a very important part of Neo-Aikido!” She giggled again. 

“If you wouldn't mind breaking from your schedule, I would like to visit my lab. There were some projects there I had only just started on, and we need to clean up the blood stain left by my corpse!” The frivolous way she treats her own death was off-putting. I couldn't imagine being so cheerful after having been through a similar experience.

“But I'm not dead, am I?” I sighed. “It's a serious question! My body might be gone, but I still remain. A blessing of God!”

I sighed again.

In the end, we decided to visit her lab for the rest of the morning. When we got there, the corpse was gone, but some of the blood remained. With little discussion, we set about cleaning the floor.

“It's a shame we never got to use the wax effigies, after I put so much time into them.” I turned around to look at where we'd piled them in the corner. “Can we just throw these out? They make me incredibly uncomfortable.” Angie rocked back and forth on the balls of our feet while she thought about it. “Let's cover them up for now and see what the others think! My art doesn't just matter to me or you, but everyone!” I sighed.

By the time we had finished cleaning, the morning announcement had happened, so we hurried to the dining hall. Most everyone was already gathered there. As we entered, we were swarmed by people. In all the commotion yesterday, the student council hadn't had much time to process this, let alone talk to us about it, so they all tried to cram in. I let Angie deal with them, as most seemed disinterested in me. I wouldn't expect my betrayal to be forgiven so quickly. 

I still think I did no wrong.

As people quieted down around us, we settled in to eat. I typically ate the same thing every day, but as I went to prepare it, Angie stopped me. “What are you making?” 

“It's what I always have for breakfast. A consistent healthy diet is important to personal fitness.” Angie shook our head. “I refuse to eat anything that has animal meat in it. God created all life, so it would be disrespectful to kill them for such selfish desires as my own nourishment! I can and always have eaten more naturally, in ways I can without harm.” I sighed. I wasn't in the mood to argue this, so I let her make her typical breakfast. We ate quickly. As we started to leave, Himiko walked up to us. She hadn't been part of the crowd when we first met up with people in the morning and she had stayed to herself throughout breakfast. 

“I want to talk to you later.” My heart leapt. “Can we meet in the art lab later?” Angie nodded. “That wouldn't be an issue!” I stayed silent.

As we walked back to my room, Angie brought the topic up again. “I know how you feel about her.” I blushed internally. Angie giggled. “You're far from subtle about it. We all know. I'm sure she knows, too.” I didn't respond. “Oh! But I don't have an issue with this! God is accepting of everyone!” I sighed.

When we got back, I tidied up a little. We visited Angie's old room and collected her things, bringing them back to what was now seemingly our shared room. Angie set about placing her things as we figured out how to split the space. Once she was done, she took out the book she brought over and started writing in it. I couldn't tell what its purpose was.

“Oh, this is a journal of my communications with God! It's one of my most important possessions!” I tried reading some of what she had written, but despite understanding the words, it didn't make much sense to me broadly. 

We still had some time before our planned meeting with Himiko, so we laid down in bed. “You… really are dedicated to God, aren't you?” Angie laughed. “Of course I am! God is my everything! I exist to bring his words to the world.” I sighed. “I don't think I'll ever see eye to eye with you on this. My master would talk about gods all the time while I was training under her and it sounded exactly like this. It feels like a bunch of nonsense.”

Angie umued. “I can understand that perspective, but we have different experiences. It's not often someone comes along hearing the voice of their deity like I hear God.” 

“I suppose. That would mean this is something I can't relate to, then.” I stopped myself, then continued. “Is your relationship with God similar to what we are now?” Angie laughed. “Oh, not at all.” She didn't explain further. “I do wonder if in time of this arrangement, you too will be able to hear the voice of God.” I laughed at that. “Well, I suppose that would be one way to convince me.”

We continued casual conversation for a few more minutes. Despite us both having been in the student council, we hadn't talked one-to-one much, so much of Angie was still a mystery to me. Our conversation didn't clear up much about her, but I feel like I came out of it with a better understanding of the person I now shared a body with.

Eventually, the time for us to meet with Himiko came and we hurried to Angie's lab. Himiko was already waiting outside for us. “Ah. You weren't here yet.” She had been knocking on the door. “Helloooooo Himiko!” Angie greeted her with her typical energy. We unlocked the door and entered. I let Himiko go in first and hurried to grab a pair of chairs for us to sit in. Before we could sit down, Himiko leapt at us and started hugging us.

We hugged back.

“I was so afraid I would lose you.” Himiko buried her head in our chest. Angie knelt down to hold her. “I'm sure it was difficult to deal with, but in time when we look back on this, we'll just see it as another test from God. It is his will that things ended up this way, after all.” Himiko had started crying, so Angie wiped her eyes. “All is fine now. God has plans for us all. We must trust him that this will all work out.” Himiko nodded. 

I struggled to find words. Instead, I grabbed Himiko tighter. I started crying as well. Angie started stroking Himiko’s hair. We stayed like that for a while, longer than I could keep track of. Eventually, Himiko stood back up and sat in one of the chairs we had prepared. She dried off her eyes as we did the same. 

Once we were all recomposed, Angie spoke again. “So what did you wish to talk to us about, Himiko?” Himiko stared at the ground before answering meekly. “I just wanted to be sure it was really you.” Angie nodded. “I don't know what I could or need to do to prove it to you than I am me.” 

“I don't doubt you. I trust Tenko enough to not make this up and the information you've had has been more than enough to make me certain. You are the same Angie we knew before.” Angie nodded. “But all the same, I needed to know. I needed to talk to you and confirm it.” Angie nodded again.

And throughout this, I just watched. Watched them go back and forth. It gave me time to think, although I didn't use it. I was content to just watch Himiko. I don't know how much time passed, but before long, it was nighttime. Angie said her goodbyes to Himiko and started heading back to our room. It was only once we were back that I snapped back to reality.

Angie caught me up. Apparently most of the conversation had been about the future of the student council. It had been decided that Angie would stay in her position of leadership among the student council. However, for my betrayal and showing of disbelief in their god, I would be excluded. They left it up to us to decide how to deal with that, but I wouldn't want to take part anyway. Despite my devotion to Himiko, I didn't want to involve myself in such a cult anymore. And if need be, I would still be there to protect her.

After resting and letting Angie catch me up on the conversation, I decided I wanted to visit my lab. I hadn't found any time that day to visit. The curfew set by the student council didn't matter to us, because council members are exempt. 

We made our way to the lab and I started training rather silently. I could tell Angie was watching me. Eventually, she spoke up. “This body is still so new to me!” 

“I imagine that'll take a while to adjust to, yeah.” I was sparring with one of the automatic puppets. “If nothing else, your body was shorter than mine is. Ours is, now.” I kept sparring without pause. “Oh, it's that, of course. It's been a lot to get used to that!” She giggled. “But that's not what I was talking about!” She stopped my assault on the training dummy and flexed a little. “My old body was never this athletic!” She gave control back to me and I resumed my training. “And the fact that you have it in you to train this much! I could have never done this before!” She tried to replicate my maneuvers for a few seconds before giving up. I laughed. “There's more to Neo-Aikido than just the body and fitness.” Angie shrugged. “That's fine! I don't need to know how it works! That's your talent, after all!” I laughed. “Fair enough. You won't see me trying art anytime soon. Or trying to talk to god, for that matter.” We continued our banter for several more hours.

We lost track as I trained until it was later than either of us had planned for. I cleaned up the dojo and locked it up before heading back to our room. We quickly got ready for bed and collapsed as soon as we could.

“I suppose today is what the rest of our life will be like, huh?” Angie nodded. “It's a remarkable experience we're being given. I thank God for blessing me with such an incredible second chance at life. Truly, I am his chosen one.” I sighed. I'm still inclined to not believe her, but given the circumstances, I can't say I can't see her claiming this to be evidence of a divine being. I groaned as I reached over to turn the light off. As we crawled under the covers, Angie started saying a prayer. Once she finished, we fell asleep quickly, ready for another day like this and many others to come.

**Author's Note:**

> i didn't really find a way to fit it in naturally but the point of divergence between canon and this fic is that during the ritual, shuichi heard korekiyo moving around and was able to stop him before he killed tenko
> 
> there's other headcanons and stuff i have for this dynamic, but it's fun to write so instead of listing them off here i might just make a follow-up or sequel at some point 
> 
> also, despite being plural, this is the first published writing of mine to actually involve plurality cause i've had issues figuring out how to make it work in writing


End file.
